Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue matter this evening. I start by acknowledging the role that family carers play, firstly in society, in keeping people in their own home, where the vast majority want to be kept, and secondly in the economy, to which they contribute €20 billion per annum.

The State of Caring 2024 report was based on a survey of 2,127 carers. These are people who are providing full-time care, often for more than 90 hours per week, for children, adults with additional needs and older people. The survey, therefore, covered all types of carers. Despite the many positive investments that have been made over the years, the report was very worrying. It found that 72% of respondents said they had never been offered respite; 49% are paying privately for services the HSE should be providing, such as occupational therapy, OT, physiotherapy and assessments of needs for children with disabilities; 29% cut basic essentials, such as food and heat, because they do not have the necessary funds to pay for them; and 76% are moderately or severely lonely.

Not all of this is the Minister of State's responsibility and it cuts across many Departments. One area that is the Minister of State's responsibility is that of respite. It is an area I have raised many times with her in the past. The Muíriosa Foundation in Mullingar is still not providing respite and not using a community house on certain weekends of the year. I know the Minister of State made an intervention previously that improved the situation, but there is still uncertainty.

Last year, a family in my constituency was offered 14 days of summer cover in a house for day-time respite. This year, they were offered only seven days. I brought the case to the attention of the Minister of State's office earlier this week. Family Carers Ireland is suggesting, and I agree with it, that we need a national audit of our respite beds and a national register in order that people can plan for when they are getting respite. They need to know when they are getting respite, they need to be able to plan and they need certainty in their lives.

On the issue of pay, carers are the only welfare recipients who actually work for their payment. I did not realise until a couple weeks ago that a carer living alone does not qualify for the living alone allowance or fuel allowance. People who have been on employment benefit for in excess of 12 months qualify for the fuel allowance. That anomaly needs to be addressed. Given the money carers are saving the State, the Government should abolish means testing.

On housing adaptation, the level of grants has not kept pace with the cost of construction. The income threshold needs to be reviewed. It is based on the last full year of income. What if someone suddenly gets sick and their previously good income changes to a social welfare payment? That is not taken into consideration and it needs to change.

The reason I raise this matter is that it was published and received considerable media coverage today. It is also an issue I picked up very frequently as I canvassed with local election candidates in recent weeks. There are people who are not getting the necessary supports. Others are extremely lonely in their homes. The Government needs set up some sort of task force to ensure a whole-of-government approach is taken to respond to what has been identified in this report.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and providing me with the opportunity to discuss the matter. As Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities, respite services for people with disabilities and their families are a key priority for me. In outlining his case, the Deputy correctly stated that not all of this falls under my remit. There is respite for older people as well. However, my response specifically addresses respite for people with disabilities.

This Government is continuing to expand the provision of respite services available. In 2024 alone, new development funding of €15 million has been provided to ensure that respite provision continues to expand significantly across the country. This will rise to €25 million in a full year. In the coming weeks, I will publish a respite investment plan, which will detail how this funding is being utilised to support respite for children and adults around the country. This will increase the level of respite provision through a mix of provision of alternative respite options. These include summer camps and evening and Saturday clubs, overnight centre-based or residential respite; using existing overnight residential capacity to the maximum extent; and providing additional overnight respite capacity where this is needed.

In 2018, funding for respite service provision totalled €53.5 million, while in 2024 the figure is north of €110 million. In terms of overnight respite, this has translated to provision increasing from 87,000 overnights accessed by people with a disability to 151,000 overnights last year, as well as 45,000 day-only sessions. The total number of people in receipt of respite services in 2023 was 6,137 individuals.

With this increased funding, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, in tandem with the HSE, is working with me to support different forms of respite, including overnights, day provision, after-school clubs and weekend activities. Particular attention is being focused on areas that are below the national average regarding the availability of respite.

I acknowledge that demographic challenges associated with the increase in the number of people living with a disability, the increase in age and life expectancy and the changing needs of people with a disability have all led to a need for increased respite services. The co-ordinated focus will be on expanding existing overnight capacity as well as providing significant additional investment in alternative forms of respite. What that means, when translated into English, is that in some services, respite will be available four over seven nights. This means the service is open four out of seven nights in the week. My respite plan is to ensure we move to seven over seven nights and also to use these buildings to provide a day respite support.

In the past, we did not have a suite of measures for respite. The whole purpose of the respite plan I will publish is to ensure we provide everything from after-school programmes and early years education, such as Little Wonders in Cavan, to after-school programmes in mainstream schools. Sanas Ireland in Finglas in Dublin, for example, is supporting 85 children who have complex needs on a weekly basis as well as providing Saturday clubs, equine therapy and alternative respite. The co-ordinated focus will be on expanding existing overnight capacity as well as providing significant additional investment in alternative forms of respite to meet the different needs. Every effort is being made to support the provision of respite on an equitable basis and to expand provision in all forms. When we talk about respite, we mean equity of access to it regardless of people's location or who shouts the loudest so that all children have equal access to respite.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State's response. I do not for a minute doubt her commitment to this area. However, when we have situation where the State has made capital investments into respite houses and they are not being used 24-7, around the clock, it is simply inexcusable. Nobody should be able to stand over that.

A mother of an adult child with a range of disabilities wrote:

Robert, as far as I am aware, it is available all weekdays and the weekend arrangement of one weekend each per month for adults and children [It is closed two weekends every month]. Weekdays can be requested but not guaranteed. Weekends cannot be requested due to the high demand and limited availability. It seems to me pot luck if you get one. The high volume of clients along with emergency admittance further complicates things.

It is not fair for people who are providing full-time care that they cannot have certainty, cannot plan and cannot have access to respite. That needs to change now.

The Minister of State mentioned summer camps, which I welcome. I gave the example of a family who urgently needed this type of respite service and were offered 14 days last year. This year, that offer has been cut to seven days. At a time when the Government is increasing funding in this area, that does not seem right.

I speak to senior citizens who are living on their own in rural areas. I met many people who were unaware that they could go to a day-care centre. Nobody is going out to look for these people, engage with them and offer them the service.

Some of these people are lonely. One woman, when I asked her whether she would be interested in going into the Mullingar day-care centre once a week and told her that the bus passes by the head of the road, cried and said that there are some weeks she does not see anybody from the beginning of the week to the end. Why are the officials not out ensuring that people are accessing the services that are there?

I accept the Minister of State is not responsible for all these areas but we need a whole-of-government approach in tackling the issues that have been identified in this report and that I am identifying here. I would ask the Minister of State to bring it back to both her senior Cabinet colleagues and her Minister of State colleagues to see what we can do to make sure that we address the issues that have been highlighted in the report today.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy and I take on board all that he said. I welcome the fact that the Taoiseach today, on the floor of the Dáil, committed that he is meeting Family Carers Ireland within the next two weeks to discuss the full report there.

It is unfortunate that when the Deputy knocks on a door, he has the experience that people are unaware of the fabulous day-care services that are available, and where there is access to transport. The Deputy is correct that there needs to be a co-ordinated response to that.

Speaking within my own brief of where we have respite in disabilities, which was one of the key areas that was also drawn on within the report, it is having equality of access and having a co-ordinated approach to ensure that we can map out where services are being provided in order that families know when a child gets a diagnosis that there are camps available, at Christmas in winter and any time of the year, that there are equal opportunities for their little ones to be able to participate in and after-school availability, but also ensuring that by providing adequate respite, it means we prevent us from having emergency cases where family relationships break down and where we end up in crisis where families need access to emergency departments, which are not fit for purpose for a family in crisis, or where families end up not collecting a child or an adult from respite because they are absolutely worn out. I totally take that on board. That is why I am doing a complete respite plan where, it will be measured, where we will know what services are not opening even though we are funding them or what services are built and not working at full capacity. While I acknowledge we have a staffing issue and recruitment is an issue, it is not the whole problem. There has to be a cultural change and a step change to ensure, where we are spending €110 million, that those services are provided for those who are most vulnerable.